Hi, I’m Nicole aka @c0z, the Associate Editor of AndroidGuys. I’ve also been the Copy Editor of Tmonews for a while now, but that’s all behind the scenes stuff. I finally decided to post something, I hope you don’t hate it! :)

Please note: These opinions are mine and don’t reflect the opinions of Tmone–no wait, they actually do–so here we go…

Oh T-Mobile, you have so many loyal fans. This site alone is an attestation to that fact, for sure. However, there is one area in which your followers are very disappointed with your performance: the acquisition of new, awesome Android devices. Surely you have noticed that the Android community is expanding at an unremittingly fast rate, and hopefully you realize that many of your customers want options when it comes to smartphones. How about rounding up a whole new collection of those snazzy new Android devices for your oogly-eyed customer base? As mentioned in an earlier article, geek interest is paramount to your success!

I personally love my T-Mobile service but I must admit that the limitations of RAM on a stock G1 can be quite cumbersome (especially to anyone who loves to play with apps and isn’t advanced enough to use root access (not me!)). And that’s the point of having an Android device, right? To play with apps? When the myTouch 3G came along I was happy to welcome it (aside from it lacking a QWERTY, one of my personal requirements), but even that campaign is starting to grow a bit jaded. At least the mT3G’s physical form was a step in the right direction. The introduction of the Cliq is still something I’m trying to forget, and I’d have to say that the Behold II gets bundled with those same sentiments. After hearing the Xperia X10 might be going to another carrier, I started losing hope for T-Mobile’s ability to acquire the next big Android device. However, it looks like hope is making its way back to the horizon with the rumor of the Google Phone/Nexus One coming to T-Mobile. While that is definitely progress and will whet the appetites of the geeks,let’s not stop there, okay? T-Mobile, how about you make your New Year’s resolution to provide more top-end Android devices to your loyal fans? We’re counting on you…

What do you guys think? Is the Google Phone being on T-Mobile’s network enough for you? Do you think T-Mobile needs more game-changing Android handsets to keep up with other carriers?

About Nicole Cozma

I also would like to know when we lost the Sony Ericsson Xperia x10. The “Google Phone” don’t really look to promising. The x10 is all I really care about. I will not mind spending $900 bucks on that phone. I like it. And the sooner that phone comes out and gets ROOTED the sooner I shall enjoy my x10. =) as far as your post goes c0z, I couldn’t agree with you more. I love android and I can never see myself using any other OS. I’ve been with T-Mobile for a good 7 years. And with in them 7 years I think the G1 is the best phone they have ever released. You got verizon giving away free netbooks with a 2 year contract. Sprint has TV on most of their phones. At&t has the Ifap. And what does T-mobile have to offer? The G1? Or a shitty line-up of phones? Come on now. T-Mobile is rated #2 in customer satisfaction. How can these people be happy if the phone they provide are crappy. Anyways. Just felt like shareing that. And I hope T-Mobile buys out Sprint so we can have all the goodies that sprint has to offer.

gmo

what the hell? T-Mobile are you listening? Screw the Android handsets, T-Mobile are you listening?? MAKE YOUR PHONES WORK INDOORS. I should expect my phone to work at IKEA and at the mall. Do that, then work on the Android sets.

Rocko

Yeah, I don’t have that problem. Ever. Thanks. I’m not being a dick, I’m just sick of people complaining about signals here or there. If you can’t make calls from indoors where you live, then you should be on a different carrier. It’s just that simple.
And that’s why I’d never go to Sprint. There are pockets of this city, even OUTDOORS, that loses Sprint signal. So, I can either bitch about Sprint, or I can stick w/ the carrier I know are solid here. T-mobile being one of them.
Besides… the mall? Do you know how much radio-activity you got going on in that place between all the wi-fi, bluetooth, cellular, radio, walkie talkie, satellite signals… I’m surprised our brains don’t melt walking into a mall…

Taylor

Its like u said Wat I (most of us?) Was thinking! I have the mytouch now. Before the sk08 nn really I love my sk but it was time to move on. The sidekick has the best keyboad in the world but I needed a more uptodate phone with the time. But now that i have moved on I see how srry we are like really tmob step up ur game ill never leave tmo but if I have to take that step.

http://na shane

I have a problem with you trying to “forget” the cliq. I’ve had this phone for a while now and I’m extremely satisfied with every aspect of it minus the fact its not updated yet. The g1 was crap and the my touch has no keyboard,useless. The behold two is as garbage as the first one. So when you talk about android, why don’t you put the head of the pact first.

Miguel

Wow. The Cliq is actually a very good handset. Very impressed with it. I’m considering ditching my G1 for an unlocked Cliq on Ebay. It performs so much better than the G1. Even Internet performance on the Cliq (over Wifi or 3G) is better on the Cliq.

It’s just a well thought-out device. How can the author of this article be “trying to forget” the Cliq? Baffles me…

Rocko

How about I baffle you some more then: I have a rooted G1 and I don’t care about the Cliq either.

2nd, you miss the point of T-mobile not having a flagship device. Instead, they have a bunch of little ‘decent’ devices, the Cliq being one of them.

3rd, if the G1 is showing its age already with a nearly-outdated processor and lack of great memory… how far is that Cliq going to last seeing as it uses the same processors and has a just a ‘nudge’ more mem than a G1?

Although, I give you this: The Cliq isn’t anywhere as forgettable as the myTouch.

When Droid, Nexus, Xperia and Dragon are finally out and about all at the same time, the Cliq, G1 and myTouch WILL be forgotten real fast.

rushmore

Better off with an iPhone if no keyboard- then all the apps you want.

Droid is a better option due to the KB.

rushmore

shane,

G1 can be unlocked an is faster than the Cliq then, since 528mhz. Memory sucks on the G1 though.

If Cliq had a better chipset and little bigger screen, it would rock.

Ben

They need to make a version of the new Google phone with a full sliding querty keyboard like the G1

David

I think you hit the nail on the head. Verizons first Android phone was the droid, a fast device with the snapdragon processor! Sprints Android device was the Hero. T-mobile has yet to launch an Android device that comes close to either of those devices. Wtf? I did not hear about the X10 maybe not coming to t-mobile….big mistake. BIG. T-mobile needs to get rid of whoever makes the decisions on what Android devices to carry. They are only sinking themselves. I like t-mobile and have had them for 8 years now. I want cool phones and devices…you know…like At&t has?

c0z

About the X10, not as depressing as I thought. Not really as great of a device as we hyped it up to be. And another issue is depending on Sony to keep up with the UI when updates are released for Android. There are a couple of phones with custom UIs sitting in limbo because their manufacturers have not updated the UI to work with the new Android release (Cliq…).

Mark

There has been no mention on the battery size. This has me very concerned. If you have a bigger screen with almost twice the processor speed but not a much larger battery you are going to have bigger problems then we have already had with the other android/htc phones. Google would be doing themselves a favor by making damn sure the operating system is the most streamlined efficient verision they can make before they put out another phone. When you use a rooted cyan g1 or my touch it is clearly evident how poorly executed the system was when introduced. Google was saved by the fact that tmobile and htc took much of the blame. If google chooses to sell this phone under it’s own name they better have done a much better job with 2.1 or the phone will still be lacking.

c0z

Our the AndroidGuys podcast last night I mentioned how interested I am in a company making better battery technology :) I agree, it is a HUGE concern, especially for me.

rapaleeman

I find this article to be severely misguided.

Honestly I could care less about Android. I find it to be too much of a “do-it-yourself” phone and learnihng a new platform (I already use and know Blackberry and Windows Mobile) is not something I want to do just to get a functional phone.

How about T-Mobile bring in more advanced phones that actually work with features that people want (like your commercials try to reflect). The Touch Pro 2 for instance, while amazing, doesn’t even have a standard headphone jack and you as a carrier want 539.99 for it. No thank you.

None of your WM phones have a 3.5mm jack. Neither do you the G1 or myTouch. Just the waste of space Cliq, but the battery life on that thing is pathetic.

Not to mention your new BB 9700 has a terrible issue of actually hanging up the phone at the 10 minute mark and don’t get me started on the raoming from 3G to Edge with that device (hint, you lose your calls too).

So while I appreciate articles like this that voice opinions (we need more of these in more places), I think they focus on the wrong thing. If the T-Mob wants to compete, they need better devices. Really they don’t even have to be that much better, but devices that work out of the box with the features they advertise and the features the people want.

End Rant.

Porkerrican

T-Mobile has about 10 months to get their stuff in order because my contract will be over at that time. I’m hoping they acquire the iPhone since the exclusivity contract with AT&T is coming to an end. I’ve had the iPhone (ist gen), the g1, and now the Cliq, and I have to say that none of those phones come close to being comparable to the iPhone. If they don’t step their game up, I’m saying goodbye. I’m a huge tech geek and I don’t like people having better phones than I have.

Noel

I had my take b4 on the need for a line up of HIGH END SMART PHONES on Magenta. The NEXUS ONE coming to Tmobile will be the first step in the right direction. Don’t stop there…bring on Htc Bravo/passion/Dragon, Sony X10, Nokia N900 w/ Tmo 3G, Htc HD2, Nvidia Tegra phone etc. We would like to see Magenta become the hub of the Smart computer phones…make no mistake the type of phones matter if u wonna bring more ppl over to ur network. We already have cheaper rates and good customer service and working tirelessly to improve network speeds…now bring on the devices.

TomCruise

was this letter actually sent to tmobile or is it just an article here on the site?

c0z

Just a letter on the site, but it would be silly to think T-Mobile DOESN’T read this site, since it is in their best interest to see what their customers are talking about.

Willie

I believe T-Mobile does need to re-evaluate what services and products they provide to their customers. T-Mobile is lacking connection with their loyal coustomers. I’ve learned that they are discontinuing certain discounts in which they gave to their loyal coustomers because their new even more plans are cheaper. T-Mobile needs to produce more high end devices touch screens and with keyboards in which customers want. Their devices need better efficentcy meaning battery power and T-Mobile needs to continue to expand and enchance their coverage area. These again are just my opinions. Thanks

vikingfan45

its all going back to who t-mobile wants to come thru there doors…. they always say they want more non flex pay customers but you market to people that has low end credit that has not a drop of knowledge about cell phones….. So why would they carry a killer line up of phones when they have a customer base that wont ever use it or want it honestly everyone here makes up 1% of t-mobile customer base most likely there not going to cater to us…… So here my prediction for t-mobile…… keep seeing more phones like the nokia 2720, samsung t239 over priced and watch t-mobile keep sinking down down down as far as prices go for handsets EM+ is cool but they kind of set themselves up for not making any revenue of data devices its a simple formula for success if you want more data revenue make data devices cheaper…. OMG so simple i know but t-mobile USA is ran by a bunch of idiots……..

c0z

To stay afloat, they need options for all levels of people/credit.

Miguel

T-mobile keeps advertising the MyTouch3G, yet ignores the Cliq, which is superior to the MyTouch3G in every way. The Cliq is a great phone. It is basically an enhancement of the G1 in alot of good ways.

But no one knows because T-Mobile doesnt’ really advertise. Even at AAA when I purchased the Cliq as a gift for my girl, the employee was really impressed with the Cliq, and it was the first time he had seen it.

ItsMichaelNotMike

Oh man… I had taken an Ambien and started to doze off. Pardon the errors in my post, such as “to” instead of “too” and “it’s” instead of “its.” There are others I suspect, I can’t look. So sorry for all of it.

Tim

I’m completely with the author.. Let’s get more high-end hardware, and soon! While we’re at it, let’s have options too – some folks want Blur and Sense, etc – and some of us want just a straight Google Experience device WITHOUT a bunch of manufacturer tweaks.

yor PAPPI

SO TRUE CMON T-CRAP LOL

yor PAPPI

well thank u so much Nicole aka @coz , for yor well thought out comment ive bin telling these ppl the same old thing about these so called phones , or wut i like to call them bottom shelf devices lol.An i appricate someone like yor self a bigdog putting in somereal good intel on this subject maybe they might just listen MAYBE p.s. cant wait to hear from you again ill be waiting .

c0z

You are welcome, thanks for taking the time to read and comment :) I’m not sure when my next post will be, I do mostly behind the scenes stuff here, but I’ll try to think of something! Always open to ideas, too.

mbear

Ah, the solipsism of geeks.

Whenever I hear the whole ‘thought leaders’ argument I flash back to the infamous /. review of the iPod dismissing it as lame and recommending the Creative Nomad (long lost to history.)

People who read websites dedicated to whatever are not ‘normal’. We’re the far end of the Bell Curve, the few with the time & interest to follow up on the minutiae of whatever. Face it, folks on the street, y’know, that other 99.99% of the market, the ones who buy the hugely vaster quantity of phones, don’t really have an opinion.

Normal folks think about cellphones when their phone breaks, or they come up for discount, or their best bud gets a new toy, or they simply want to treat themselves to something new & shiny, then they go to a store & pick out a new phone. Sure they may ask round a bit, check out what the new hotness is, but make or break because of a model or OS version or whatever? C’mon, they got lives to live!

“Does this come in blue/purple/pink/black/red/(whatever their signature color is)?” is far more important to many people then built-in memory or talk time. Heck, probably half base their decision directly on the basis of a required data plan, not to mention how much money they have, right now, in their pocket and what they can get for it.

The exception is, of course, the iPhone.

It broke new ground in the US by getting everyone to happily shell out for a fancy phone and a substantial data plan. Not the first, not the best, but by nearly every metric the iPhone is what kicked the smartphone market into high gear hereabouts. For that RIM & HTC & Motorola & Samsung & every one else in the market we’re profoundly grateful: Finally a phone costing more then US$100 wasn’t absurd or something ‘the company’ had to pay for but a legitimate, reasonable, object of desire (& utility.)

Yes, the SideKick predates the iPhone, and likely primed a generation to pay for texting and web browsing and downloadable apps, but the SK never achieved cross-over appeal. At the other end the BlackBerry also offered many of the same basics, but also didn’t become a universal must-have device on it’s own.

But for the G1 or the Droid or Hero or Storm or whatever else, signature phones are demonstrably a fallacy. Sure a few folks may come by to take a look, kick the tires, and a percentage may even switch-over for whatever, but driving a company? Nope. If that were true Nokia’s top-end phones would be popular on the streets, but take a look around, what is the norm in Europe is a curiosity in North America.

How can a business thrive? By delivering on price AND service AND goods!

Having just one or even two doesn’t cut it, again look to the alienation of iPhone users with AT&T. Or MetroPCS/Cricket/et al – churn churn churn.

T-Mo seems to be on the right track.

Awesome Customer Care – seriously, it is a huge buzz-creator: “They’re _helpful_”, “solved my problem”, “so nice!”. It used to be who did you hate the least – now it is ok to like those T-Mo folks on the phone, in the store, etc.

Service – Deeper Green is paying off, the over-engineered 3G network is finally starting to show off it’s full capability, where others are faltering T-Mo is just getting in gear.

Price – unlimited/no-worry plans are half of what they are elsewhere, heck, they’re half of what they were at T-Mobile a few months ago! Plus the transparency of More Plus plans means no obscure ‘magic dates’ for discounts, no “It sez $40! I want it for $40! I bought it last month for $40!” subsidy battles. Instead here’s the service, here’s the phones, here’s an installment plan. Easy peasy.

Devices – From top to bottom a diverse selection of devices, at typically really good price-points. Not big on the niche markets (hello fellow geeks!) but serving the broad, and profitable, range of consumers. Plus house brands like SideKick & now myTouch do extend the franchise, in support of the franchise.

Face it, we’re not the customers anyone is really looking for. We’re too few, too demanding, not profitable enough. Everyone wants to be special, to be catered to, can create rationalizations why they should be, but the cold hard facts of economics dictate otherwise.

Sidebar:

My dad is a business professor. Last week he had teams of students doing project proposals for a national retailer. Half of the proposals ran into the same wall: They’d not serve the retailer’s customers. Why? Because the students kept creating products & services THEY’D want, but they’re not women ages a-b, with incomes of this-that, etc. who are the retailers customers.

Each time the they were reminded of this the students would object, what about THEIR needs?

They’d be explained (again) this very successful retailer had become the many-billion-dollar operation it is by knowing their customers, catering their customers, becoming the destination to their customers. If the students wanted a retailer that catered to them then they should go there, there are many, but trying to remake everything in their image was counter-productive to _their_ customer, this national retailer.

End Sidebar.

Unfortunately ‘students’ are a lot larger market then ‘phone geeks’, so there isn’t enough market pressure to create a phone geek phone company. If there is one it’d likely be T-Mobile, with it’s willingness to embrace third-party devices, data-friendly policies, etc. But T-Mobile explicitly going after the phone geeks? Really? Can anyone produce a business case (& not simple wish-fulfillment) to support this? I think not.

I’d love to see such, really. I’d love more fancy toys to play with. As a phone geek I might even invest in a few. As someone interested in T-Mobile I’d fear boxes of expensive phones sitting unsold in stockrooms, eventually being discounted for a loss. I’m betting some folks in Bellevue Washington have run those numbers, looked at what gets sold & what shows up on their network, what folks are bringing from outside, and calculated it don’t pay.

Please prove me wrong; Send any strong business case to Bellevue, care of the President’s Office.

c0z

Your comment is like 600 more words than my original post… :\ I think the market is changing and people aren’t only thinking of new phones when the one they have breaks. Sure, there are still going to be people using what would be considered ancient technology to geeks, but that seems to be less and less people that I’m noticing whenever I go anywhere. I rarely see flip phones anymore except with grandmas, even the adults I see have a Blackberry, WinMo, or Android phone. And I’ve seen a LOT of DROIDs in the wild recently, but even more so myTouch and G1.

Allen Thomsen

Dang. You really love tmo huh? Well, I have been with them for 5 years with 4 phone lines with 2000 minutes and unlimited text messaging. I bought a g1 through them and got it yesterday. I didn’t want the data plan. but they sent it and after I got it i found out it won’t send text. It will receive, but not send. I called CC and they told me it could be fixed but would have to have the data plan. I live in a remote area so the data plan really wont work here… Extremely slow, so I don’t want to pay the 30 bucks a month for nothing. So I asked if i could get the data plan long enough for them to fix the problem. At first they said yes that would be fine, but by the time the call was over they told me absolutely not. I would either have to have the data plan for 30 dollars a month or send the phone back at my own expense. I plan to do just that and in a few months when my contract is up. I and my 4 phone lines with 2000 minutes and unlimited texting will be LONG GONE… They’re customer care treated me like a criminal for wanting the sms texting to work without the data plan. I know 3 people with tmo and g1 without the data plan in my area (because the data plan is extremely slow) and they text sms all the time. So for the insults and the lack of care of their CC I am leaving as soon as I don’t have to pay 200 dollars a line to cancel. and this one time faithful tmo customer is out. Att or veri or anyone else offering a decent phone that has wifi and will let you use it without a data plan will be where i go. If that is to much to ask they can all do without my $100.00 a month. You know 5 years at 100 bucks a month is $6,000.00 not counting the 8 different phones I have bought through them. If that isn’t enough to be considered better than criminal, they can have their precious android crap. If i HAVE to have a data plan I’d much rather have an IPHONE that is completely AWESOME despite what you said in your little paid advertisement for tmo. IPHONE is by FAR the best hand held device out there and YOU know it, even if your being paid to say otherwise. I really am fed up with tmo and folks like you defending them. go ahead and reply to this with some real smart tmo infomercial crap. tmo CC completely disregarded my honest plea for help and left me with no option but to spend more money or p!ss off.
and if you try the … g1 won’t work without the data plan, I will post the link to everyone right here how to do it. I would do it myself but I am just done with them through and through so I am sending the g1 back and bidding my time until I can not have to worry about being treated like sh!t by them ever again.
Geeze,
Those folks really made me mad last night!

CeluGeek

How about expanding their smartphone offerings in Windows, Symbian, and BlackBerry for those of us not willing to sell our lives to Eric Schmidt and his disregard for our privacy?!?! How about expanding their UMA-capable phone selection? How about treating contract-bound customers like the first-class citizens we are supposed to be instead of making us pay more for rate plans you are going to offer to non-contract customers for less? How about ditching device-specific data plans so we can enjoy full functionality whether we put our SIM’s on a TM506, Behold, Cliq or TouchPro 2? You know, geeks like to swap SIM between multiple phones.

Seriously, there are many things that T-Mobile needs to improve other than sweetening the Google phones. I really think this website should be renamed from ‘tmonews.com’ to ‘androidnews.com’

David

Pretty good thought on changing the name, but if Android news is the predominant T-Mobile news, than thats what is reported on.

SEFan

I mostly agree with you. The iPhone demonstrated that with the right device you could get a bunch of civilians to pony up for a serious mobile device and the expense of a data plan. Just how much the failings of the network partner affects the perception of the device is still an open question. I personally hope Apple ditches AT&T for a more open policy ’cause I think it’s come to the point that AT&T is holding them back.

So T-Mo has a reasonably fleshed-out robust 3G network, one decent 3G Blackberry (troubles notwithstanding), one decent WinMo device (sorry about lack of 3.5 mm plug!), and 4 also-ran devices on Android. OK, the Clic has potential if Motoblur works for you, but the others are definitely behind the curve: too slow, too limited. And because of AWS band it’s not like we can go out and sample the range of unlocked devices; not many work for us. I hope this Nexus device is as cool as the pics and specs. Something T-Mo can use to showcase a reliable 3G network. That could be the game-changer for them.

MarkMc84790

I’ve been using my unlocked/jailbroken 2G iPhone for awhile now, and I am now greatly looking forward to the new Google Phone.

I would also like to see the periodic talks of the acquisition of Sprint so that T-Mobile can have phones that are HSPA+ & WiMax.

Bring on Android and blazing fast throughput.

Ed

I’ve no desire for more Android handsets…

T-Mobile, bring us the HD2!

redwoodflyer

I have a simple, reasonable (IMHO) request: Don’t be dumb and think like a bunch of bean counters! My main concern is the thought process which lead to the MyTouch having only 192 RAM instead of 256mb and no 3.5mm jack, even though the original version of it from HTC had all of the above. It really would have added, at most, $10 to the wholesale cost, which could be covered by that $18 upgrade fee or 10 days worth of data plan charges.

That on penny pinching move turned many against Android, since the 192 results in a slooww experience (until Cyanogen anyways), and needing a dongle to use headphones is inexcusable.

Usman

I understand people’s comments regarding T-mobile’s marketing toward a “lower-end” demogaphic..but consider this… If we had a more high-end demographic overall, we’d probably have a more congested network for smartphones. Has anyone considered that those flexpay and “I don’t care what phone I’m using” crowd cover the costs of upgrading the network (albeit slowly) while we enjoy an un-AT&T like experience? I’m sure I’m overlooking something, but it’s just a thought.

MrNova

I completely agree with the author, I have a G1, and I have found no reason to upgrade to any of the current android headsets, The MT3G, is just a non keyboard version of the G1, the cliq is barely an upgrade to the G1, and the behold 2 is just……There! All the current android headsets are barely upgrades to the G1. Especially since my G1 is rooted, and it runs faster than the cliq, and i get like monthly updates, thanks to cyan! I hope we get this google phone, because I will definitely spend the money to get one, and i can finally find a suitable replacement for my G1, and give it a proper farewell.

courtney

y?

kody

ok i came from the G1 and just recently upgraded to the cliq and let me tell you it is a whole new world and honestly the best phone ive ever used and i dont know anyone who has one that is dissatified so why dont you clarify that statment about forgetting the cliq if the cliq were released oct 22 2008 instead of the g1 it would be a whole diff ballgame right about now even cnet.com said after they put both the droid and cliq through its paces that the cliq was there fav android device to date if you want to leave and go to at&t bye go ahead but i just had two of my friends leave the iphone and grab the cliq after playing around with mine the cliq is a awsome phone that was mishandled by t-mobile the marketing was abismal if they actualy got the thing out there it would be just as on fire as the droid maybe even more y do i still see more mt3g commercials than i do cliq what t-mo really needs to do is get a whole new marketing team because like i been saying for years thats the area where they have always lacked behind the compitition and like the old saying goes if you show it they will come…

SEFan

You make a good point about the Cliq. HAD it rolled in late 2008 it might have helped Android (and T-Mo) get off to a better start. The Cliq is at least a sleek, polished device. It would have been held back by the rawness of Android in 2008, but at least the hardware was there. BUT THAT’S THE PROBLEM! It isn’t 2008 anymore, and yet T-Mo’s follow-on Android phones have been little improved over the original G1. The Cliq may be CNET’s fav Android phone, and I’ve seen a number of less complimentary reviews on the Cliq, but basically it has the same screen real estate, the same processor, the same memory as the G1. Meanwhile, all around us other phones are showing with more memory, faster processors, some with larger screens. It was actually painful to see T-Mo roll the Cliq and then a few weeks later the Droid shows up. The Droid had some issues, but next to it the Cliq is a very pedestrian device.

I think the Nexus is Google’s technical exercise, showing their frustration with the way Android has been implemented to this point. The OS has some real advantages for small devices, but relatively few of the current devices running Android take full advantage. I think Nexus is Google’s way of saying “This is what an Android device can be. Step up your game guys!!”

JinKazama

I’m actually interested in this device. I’d be much more interested if this device had a slide out full Qwerty keyboard (Preferably with Dpad), I also want to know how much internal memory does it have along with the expandable memory slot? It has No secondary camera for video-calling either.

JinKazama

Also, the fact that it’s “Thinner than the iPhone” is NOT a good thing to me. With a 4.3 inch screen, with it being that thin, that will be at more risk for the screen to crack and that’s not something I’m looking forward to.

JinKazama

One more thing, TMOBILE GET THE N900!!!!!

Ace

As a long time employee with the Mighty Magenta, I have some concerns about what the Big Pink is doing lately and in the past. It is frustrating to go into the Holiday season to do battle un-armed. I see BOGO deals with Sprint along with TONS of TV ads. Verizon has a FULL 4 page pull out in the paper showing nothing about rate plans, just phones ( get the hint Mr.D ?) and of course, they have the first Android phone, right? (Based on their Droid ads, this seems to be the case.) Plus the countless TV ads that they saturate us with, again never mentioning rate plans. AT&T just have the good luck to have THE device that people will sign up with a crappy carrier, just to get the phone. We have weekend specials featuring our pathetic Nokia line up along with The Samsung Gravity, Gravity 2 and the one that makes sense….My Touch. I really do not think we are advertising these, only in store.
RATE PLANS ALONE WILL NOT MAKE US BIGGER !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
For years, we did not carry a plain phone with a QWERTY because it would cut into SK sales. The Gravity only sells because of that feature. How many people did we walk because they did not want a data phone, they just wanted to text.
For years we were like the Statue of Libery….”Give us your poor….your wretched masses with bad credit”, and we wonder why our churn is so high. Smart Access, Flex Pay…whatever we call it now is nothing but a deact waiting to happen. When you sleep with the person that no one else will sleep with, you will more than likely get a STD. Why are we so desperate????? We all know that this customer is a quick fix…not the answer. Instead of putting in the work and building up the business the right way, we went for the quick fix.
Another reason we have high churn…..we do NOTHING to let that returning customer know how special they are to us. They get no special pricing on the handset, we make them pay us to re-sign and now we charge them a migration fee to switch to a better plan to stay with us. What the hell is that???? I would leave under these conditions. We have one, count em ,1 free phone right now. Are we the value company or are’nt we?
Our advertising just flat out blows…….I could hire Spanky and his crew to do a better job. CZJ???????????? Why not dig up Bette Davis????? The last good commercial we had was the Snoop-Wayne Newton SK one YEARS ago.
How many GAME CHANGING IDEAS have we been through now?????
Hotspot @ home…Who the hell was Jimmy and why did we care?
My Faves….good idea but others pushed it harder,longer and better. I saw more AllTel ads and they are not even in my neck of the woods.
@ Home……home phone service is at a all time low so lets jump on that trend. Let’s make it even harder to sell, let’s not make it available to Flex pay and customers who have 5 lines or our valued loyalty customers who had to add the line for $40 a month.
EVEN MORE AND EVEN MORE PLUS…..great for new customers but again our existing “valued” customers take it in the shorts again.I think this is agreat start to the rebuiding of our company, but alone we will just keep spinning our wheels.
MOBILE MAKEOVER…..PLEASE !!!!!! how much did we spend on that pile of crap?????? 100% of people did not care.

ITS ABOUT THE HANDSETS DUMMY AND THE NETWORK DUMMY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
When we launch a new handset..good ,bad or average…NO ONE KNOWS IT ( i am excluding people that read these type of sites. Admit it folks, we are small in number). We are like the old saying ” If a tree falls in the forest and no one is ther to hear it, does it make a sound? When we launch a phone, does anyone who is not an existing customer know it because we do not advertise it? We have our best lineup ever ( sad but true) and we are doing nothing to let that Sprint, Verion or AT&T customer know it. We launched our best device, the 9700 with no fan fare and it’s selling great but mostly as upgrades, not new acts. The G1 WAS the first Android device on the market but we screwed it up with confusing ads that never said what that phone could do. The My Touch is a great device that seems to be the fave of washed up comics,coaches and cable motorcycles dudes.What do those ads mean???? We called the G1 the “Killa” but only to ourselves because we didnt have the guts to call out the iphone. Verion did and look at the sales.
Getting the Nexus, HD2,Nokia N series,SonyX10 whatever the high end device is , is not the only answer. We need to shout out what we have and what we can do. Honestly,I think that we hide behind the “get more” banner because we are afraid to talk about our network. Until we fix our in home coverage and expand our 3G footprint, we will continue to be #4. Thank God for our customer service. JD Powers is the only horn we can blow right now and if we keep setting up call centers in India, we can kiss that one good bye too.
I am sorry about the lenght of this response but I am frustrated with the lack of progress in our company and what we can become. We are in a highly competative business and it’s hard to convince people to sign up or stay with us with seemingly no support from above.
Thanks for listening.

ItsMichaelNotMike

ACE yours is an excellent post and pretty much echoed what I have said in bits and pieces over the past couple years.

To me that last big deal at T-Mo was when they got the exclusive on the BlackBerry Pearl, in Sept. 06. After that the company has just sat on the bench, so to speak.

Maybe you are not in a position to know this, but why is all you mention happening? And why doesn’t T-Mo fix it?

If you and I can identify the problems, why can’t they?

What, do they have some marketing group who thinks they are doing a bang up job?

I don’t think so. Granted, the country’s baby boomers are aging to maybe where Chevy Chase makes sense in an ad, but the myTouch does not strike me as the type of phone Chevy Chase fans would buy. They would go more for something with a giant keypad and that has a speaker phone, but that’s about it.

And the ads, they just are not exciting and they don’t get anyone’s attention.

You are right about the ad differences. Verizon is spending $100 million on its Droid campaign and it shows. Its commercials are memorable. Heck, I have T-Mobile tattooed on my arm (figuratively) and even I watch every Droid commercial that comes on because they are entertaining.

And when I am another room I can hear a Droid commercial.

What does T-Mo have, has beens and unknowns standing against a white backdrop holding their myTouch phones. I could come up with better stuff.

I’d have Jesse James on the phone with a T-Mo exec on the line. Jesse says “You want what? OK.”

Then they show Jesse welding hammering and bending. Sparks are flying everywhere.

At the end he drives in a mock parade, in a car shaped like a myTouch phone. Then an announcer says as the camera moves around the car, “myTouch… a phone as unique as you want it to be.”

Now I just made that up and it could use a lot of work, but that would be a better commercial than the crap I see now.

Anyway, any idea on the why things are the way they are?

Sam

T.MO Please wake up before it’s too late. We need the Iphone by October 2010

TmoAsian

Guys, listen. You get what you pay. T mobile is the cheapest, so it gets all the cheapest phones. Verizon is so expensive, so it get everything. The problem is everyone is going after Verizon for awesome handsets, and T mobile is in the shadow. Hey, it stinks.

Ed

Last time I was in a verizon store, which was a few months ago, I thought their phone selection was horrible. So did my wife who was actually the one shopping for a phone…

What “awesome” handsets do they have?

abe

there is a point infact about tmo. tmobile bombed the hero. for the mytouch tmobile changed the touch pro two for example …. they need to get their act together…they could do so well if they would just be more like their European parent company check this thread out and u’ll see….yea verizon is expensive(their customer service SUCKS!!!)..they may have the DROID.yet their phones are locked up tighter then seals butt! our phones arent as locked up as theirs.yet still tmo changes stuff. better devices equil more revenue, more money equils more towers….im thinking long and short term here.

Ace

Things are the way the are because of Dotson

Ace

Things are the way they are because of Dotson. VP’s come and go, DD’s,so on,but one thing remains the same….the guy at the top. You can’t keep replacing the players and the coach remains.

I remember a couple of years ago when we made the switch from “Get More” to “Stick Together” and we were told to look at our teams and ourselves and ask if we were right for the “new” T-Mobile…….maybe Robert needed to do the same.

There comes a time that the top guy needs to be held accountable. I’m sure Germany has put heat on him because of the 3rd quarter results which gave us Even More plans which is a step in the right direction,but was it enough? Can we build our base on no contract and maintain it?? Can you survive as a company when you have a store do 10 acts with 0 post ads?????

I’m sorry,but I live in a large city on the West Coast and our in home coverage is below standard. You know it and I know it and THEY know it…our network is not ready to take on the big boys yet. Phone selection is nice but it doesnt make up for that.

Every one talks about Verizon, AT&T lacking customer service……Verizon had less than a 1% churn and people still line up for the freakin’ iPhone. Bad service is not slowing them down. As far as Sprint goes…..watch out for them. Great rate plans ALONG with better phones are helping. Churn is bad there but they still have 15 million more than we do. That is a huge gap.

When EVEN MORE and EM+ launched, we should have directly gone after our competition in our ads by name. Verizon and AT&T are in a pissing match with maps right now, but the ads are cool and people are talking about them. NO ONE remembers our ads at all.

Long story short……..it starts at the top.

TmoAsian

Uh huh. The trouble is, who is gonna convince tmobile to release better phones? No one. It’s all up to the management. I am not saying i dont want it to happen, i am BEGGING for it to happen. But we dont know how to convince them what they are doing is wrong. I checked phonearena the other day, and they only had three upcoming tmobile phones that were only rumored. WHAT IS WITH THIS MADNESS? Even sprint has a better phone range then us.

SiliconAddict

I couldn’t care less about the damn Google Phone because it doesn’t have a freaking keyboard. fail. And frankly I won’t buy a phone at this point without a keyboard. As such there are so few choices on T Mobile’s site I’m considering just outright breaking my contract and pay the $200 to go somewhere else. After just over a year with my G1, and 3 G1′s at that, I have come to the determination that the hardware is a complete and total joke. You start doing too much on the thing and it bogs down big time. I hate this POS, but what other keyboard based choice do I have? The Motorola CLIQ…yah right. Its a G1 in a Moto shell.
T Mobile’s network may be getting better. Their phones are as big of a joke as ever.

Second..people still want Phones not smart phones…just phones……some people cannot handle what it takes to use a smartphone.

VIRGIL0201

I have to agree. i visit here every morning with high hopes. i’ve been w/ Tmo for 8 yrs and i am addicted to android. it is heartbreaking to see all the other carriers geting the hot new eclair and we are stuck with garbage. i love the G1, hate the My touch but i keep it cuz it may be the only hope for a 2.0 update. i actually like the behold 2 but it is aggrevating that it is stuck at 1.5. does anyone know if T-mobile even reads this stuff we all complain about. EVERYONE is saying the same thing and yet, TMO JUST IGNORES US. All we want is a handset or 5 that competes with what we could get if we bailed on tmo. i love the coverage and customer service i get with tmobile but my patience is wearing thin. And whoever suggested firing the idiot that chooses handsets for Tmo, DEFINETLY fire that fool ! Cummon Tmo, you started this android thing, run with it and stop letting the other kids steal YOUR BALL. SOOO disappointed with tmobile for forgetting the loyal folks who stuck with you. obviously we are all optomists. we’de have to be, but you need to stop taking advantage of our optimizism and reward the faithful. COMPETE for god’s sake ! sorry for venting but it’s sad watching every other carrier blow right past us.

Nick D

T-Mobile is definitely not listening. They need to get the Nexus One or a phone with similar specs as a captive sale so it can be offered fully subsidized to all t-mobile customers. They need a top-line Android phone with a qwerty keyboard… i.e. the motorola milestone. They need to improve the specs of the MT3G, more ram, faster CPU, not just add a 3.5 jack. They’ve gotten passed by already by Verizon with the Droid, and even Sprint with the Samsung Moment. They NEED the Experia X10 as a T-Mobile phone. They need to get serious about all of this. I need to get rid of my blackberry and they don’t have the phone I want yet.

Lindsey

T-Mobile is the reason Android is out there. T-mobile has the largest line up of Google phones. Without T-Mobile’s leap into the Android phones, we would be still stuck with Blackberries and Windows Mobile devices.

Ruth

Why do I buy a T-Mobile myTouch 3G 1.6 and nobody talks about updating it with 2.x. No money to keep buying new phones and starting contract over. I was told at store I would get an update and many things would be easier to use with a lot more in app store. All I read is about other phones and the Slide. Can’t afford to go through and buying, buying. What about loyal newbies on myToucToich?h

Bryan

I think that what they need to do is update the damn android OS, to keep up with other companies. I’m Tired of waiting for the stupid OTA to come through on my MT3G, and to tell you the truth I see other companies revealing 2.2 on their platforms via OTA and it makes me want to go over to those companies, and I’m sure I’m not alone with the rest of T-Mo’s customers.

–An angry MyTouch3G customer

dubya504

It’s August and still No Froyo 2.2 for Mytouch 3G. There new phones like the
EVO is now getting 2.2 and we are still waiting. Tmobile sent out the magazine stating it will update the Mytouch 3G, it was called No Phones Left Behind and we are still Left Behind!!!!!!!!!!!!

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